Bill Belichick Loses Patriots-Related Trademark Requests

Gerben notes that through trademark and copyright law, potential trademarks cannot add additional words to the end of already-registered phrases. It's something that officers in the United States Patent and Trademark Office would look at and quickly reject. Because the Patriots still use those phrases in merchandise and marketing projects, there's no chance Belichick has any grounds for a reversal.

"(The USPTO) wants commerce, the wheels of commerce, to continue to spin, and phrases not to be held up," Gerben said about the Patriots still using those registered phrases. He said that if Belichick could prove the team no longer uses the slogans, he can try again — "Try and cancel the Patriots registrations on certain grounds if the evidence would support it would be that they're no longer using the trademarks."

Hudson, Belichick's girlfriend and what the football coach described as his "creative muse," wanted to incorporate Taylor Swift into the trademarks. When the pop star re-released her albums under new "versions" to reclaim the rights to her music, why was she able to add a phrase to the end of each song?

It's because she's creating new pieces of art and differentiating it from the master copies. Because of this, it's an entirely different album and thus, Swift is able to add the extra phrase on it.

For Belichick, the USPTO ruled that adding "Bill's Version" to the end of an already popular Patriots slogan doesn't differentiate it from the original phrase. If anything, it's just riding New England's coat tails.

"(A) big difference there," Gerben said. "Taylor Swift was re-recording an entire piece of music, which, when she did that, created a new piece of art. And so she labeled the songs or the albums Taylor's version. ... It's an interesting side note about trademark law is that you cannot protect the name of a single work of art. So typically, the name of a song or the name of an album is not protectable as a trademark unless you're doing something with it besides just having it be the name of the song of the album."

Can Belichick appeal the ruling? What's that process like? Does he have any chance of winning? According to Gerben, it's unlikely and would be a waste of both time and money.

"You can make additional arguments and bring some evidence in the appeal process that might be persuasive to an examiner," Gerben said. "In this case, like, I don't see that happening, right? I don't see an argument that Bill can make, or even evidence that he could supply ... They're not going to entertain an argument that the Patriots' registrations may be improper."

As for now, the Patriots will continue to sell "Do You Job" and "Ignore The Noise" merchandise throughout the season. For UNC's university bookstore, that ship has most likely sailed.